Tag: Microsoft »

It's E3 season, which means it's the time of year that mobile games get basically ignored in favor of super-budget AAA titles and people screaming out reactions to things they're going to be disappointed in when they actually come out in a few months time.

That said, there have been a few interesting looking iOS games announced over the past couple of days, so we thought it was a good idea to round them up to give you a flavor of what you might be playing in the next few months on your phones. Or, in some cases, what you'll probably be ignoring.

Minecraft is getting full cross-platform support this summer in the upcoming Better Together update. The update, announced at Microsoft's E3 press conference, will unite all versions of Minecraft, meaning the Pocket Edition you may have been playing will become plain ol' vanilla Minecraft when the update goes live.

Today Microsoft has confirmed that Office is on its way to the iPad. In fact, the entire suite (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint) is available now for free, with a subscription service available for full functionality.

Word is in many ways the same word processing program that you're no doubt already familiar with, only retooled for touch screens. Tables, charts, graphics, a table of contents, and all those other useful features are available on your iPad. Charts and other images that have been imported from Excel can be edited from within the app, and text will dynamically adjust around these items as you drag them around the page. Co-op features are also built in, which will allow multiple users to edit a document simultaneously in real-time across a number of different devices. No worries about things getting too confusing, though. It's also possible to display markup so that you can see what edits have been made, have conversations with your fellow users within the margins, and so on.

Excel carries over all the familiar features from its PC counterpart, along with the obvious changes for a touch-based interface. You can sort through chart layouts quickly and easily, and the app will even make recommendations for you with samples that use your data. Even the keyboard has been adjusted to cater to iPad users, with a customized numeric keyboard that should make data entry a lot easier.

PowerPoint allows you to import and edit your slides and images, includes all those popular transitional effects everybody seems to love, and has added some new functions that are specific to touch screens. First, you can call up a digital laser pointer by tapping and holding your finger on the screen, in order to make it easier to point out specific elements in a presentation. Second, you can add annotations by drawing highlights directly on the screen.

All of the apps in the Office 365 series also share data across multiple devices (iPhone, iPad, PC, etc) using Microsoft's OneDrive service. The entire collection is available now, for free, and uses the Office Mobile subscription-based model. So you can opt to pay $9.99/month or $99.99/year (family) or between $60.00/user/year and $180/user/year (business) in order to access the complete list of features across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Microsoft Office, which debuted on the iPhone in June of last year, is finally expected to come to the iPad next week via Satya Nadella's first press event as CEO of Microsoft. Members of the media have been receiving invites to this supposedly mobile-first and cloud-first press conference, and according to sources for The Verge the event will mark many major announcements - with Office coming to Apple's tablet being only one.

The iPad version of Microsoft Office is expected to be much like the iPhone version, and as such will require a subscription to Microsoft's Office 365 service to be able to edit documents. Document types supported in this mobile version are the same as the iPhone version; you'll be able to edit within the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps.

We'll be sure to let you know here at 148Apps when the app is officially announced.

While this post has nothing directly to do with iOS, it is a pretty major story in the mobile world. One you are likely not going to hear the end of soon. Microsoft has just officially unveiled Windows Phone 8, the mobile version of their new Windows ecosystem.

While at first glance it looks like Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 8 has matured nicely. The Windows Phone 7 interface, known previously as Metro, has become the basis for all Windows 8 devices, desktop, tablet, and mobile. Which is great for standardized usability, maybe. There are some really good things about Windows Phone 8, and some bad ones. The interface is great, the apps, not so much.

Windows Phone 8 - The Interface

When Joe Belfiore got on stage to introduce the final unknown features of Windows Phone 8, it seemed like a sigh of relief. Microsoft has been teasing this release for what seems like months, but it's finally here. However, it's not without some notable issues.

I must point out that the Windows Phone 8 OS interface is perfectly suited for mobile. It is the only mobile OS designed from the start for mobile and it shows that a lot of thought went into the design. In many ways it's a better interface for mobile than iOS or Android (which just copied iOS). It is focused on getting you the data you need quickly. The strength in iOS is with the apps. But that isolates that data inside the app and requires extra touches to get to it. Windows Phone is designed to surface the data from your apps onto your start screen. It's just there and it's really well done.

Some really good new features were presented, like Kid's Corner, a specially administered interface on your device for when your kids want to play. Deep integration of your social networks is also a huge plus--doubly so on the go. Rooms allow groups of people to share things like photos, calendars, and even group messages.

Windows Phone 8 - The Hardware

Microsoft has announced a range of devices that will run Windows Phone 8. Let's be honest: they are all pretty good but not amazing. None of them that I tried have the design and feel of the nearly perfect iPhone 5, but they are functional and fairly well done. Some corners were cut with most devices being all plastic, but that also keeps the retail prices down.

Some stand-outs include the Nokia 920, and the HTC 8X. Microsoft handed out HTC 8X devices as the unveiling this week and it's the device I've been using to test Windows Phone 8.

Microsoft asks for a third chance

Here's the really bad thing about Windows Phone 8, Microsoft is asking for yet another do-over in mobile. They messed it up, failed to build properly for the future, again, and need to start over. That means that the old stuff is deprecated and won't be upgraded.

So all the years of their rhetoric about Windows Mobile being the operating system of the future? False. Windows Phone 7 is the future? False. Have a Windows Phone 7 device? It's not upgradeable to Windows Phone 8, just a few short months later. Sorry, Microsoft needs to start over and create something new, so you are left with the short straw. If you have a recent Windows Phone 7 device it can be upgraded to 7.8, a subset of Windows Phone 8, but incompatible with WP8 apps, which is little consolation.

So even while Nokia was spending crazy ad dollars telling users that the "Smartphone beta test is over," they knew it was just a ruse. It's unforgivable to me that Nokia was selling devices it knew would not be upgradeable in just a few short months. Imagine if the iPhone 5 were not upgradeable to iOS 7 when that inevitably comes out next year. Oh, the fervor that would raise. But you see, hardly anyone bought Windows Phone 7 devices, so there's no outrage. There are good things about being on the low end of the list in smartphone production, huh, Nokia?

I think Microsoft should just buy every Windows Phone 7 user a new Windows Phone 8 device. Would be great PR, and probably more effective than some of the ads they will end up running.

The end result of this is that you should be at least a bit concerned that Windows 9 is right around the corner and could easily make any Windows Phone 8 device you buy obsolete and non-upgradeable.

So, that's a bit off my chest. But now here's the kicker. I really like Windows Phone 8, I do. I think it's innovative, pleasing to use, and all around well done. But the sad thing is, I won't use it regularly, because there are still too few good apps for it.

Right Achilles Heel: Where are the good apps?

While Microsoft touts 120,000 apps for Windows Phone, there's a real problem with those apps: a huge majority of them are just horrible crap. Most of them are way worse than the crappiest of apps on iOS. Many of the recognizable ones, the ones that Microsoft trumpets as being keystones on the platform, are just way behind compared to their iOS counterparts. Some are designed as feature sub-sets of their iOS versions, but others just haven't been updated in too long.

The good news is that this lack of good apps should start to be less of an issue. At the Windows Phone 8 event this week Microsoft said they would have 46 of the top 50 apps on Windows Phone. I don't know where that top 50 came from, but they did announce some good additions, like Pandora, Temple Run, and Angry Birds Space.

Microsoft will spend a ton of cash advertising Windows Phone 8; hopefully it will help. Flurry has already announced a huge uptick in new Windows Phone projects. Hopefully those new apps will be first class citizens, unlike some of the feature-lacking ones available now for Windows Phone.

But that's not all. There is yet another problem with the Windows Phone app marketplace: device-specific apps.

Left Achilles Heel: Manufacturer Specific Apps

Forget about the Windows Phone 8's (lack of) upgrade fiasco. Or even that the apps released for Windows Phone are sometimes generations behind other platforms. Here's another big problem: device-specific app markets.

It seems like every other platform tries to match the iTunes App Store, but none are able to do it. Microsoft has capitulated to the device manufacturers to allow them to place manufacturer-specific app market sections in the main marketplace leading to apps that not all users can get to. Of course, the device marketing wonks have run with it. Releasing apps for specific devices from one manufacturer instead of all devices on the platform is a weak marketing tactic. In the end, it's the whole of Windows Phone that will suffer for it.

Windows Phone 8 - Where does it fit in?

It's easy to categorize mobile users. This is a generalization, of course, but Android users tend to be the DIY types and the "I heard there's something called a smartphone and I want one for free" users. iOS users are the people the like it when their devices "just work." Those iOS and Android users have already invested time and money into their platform of choice and the apps there. They aren't likely to switch in large numbers to Windows Phone 8. So who's left for Microsoft?

Business users, perhaps. Those that work for companies heavily invested in Microsoft technology, maybe. The problem with this is it takes years for companies to upgrade this type of infrastructure.

People who don't already have a smartphone? These are the best candidates for Windows Phone 8. If you have a Windows 8 computer, it just makes sense to go with Windows Phone 8 if you aren't invested in something else.

Then there are those that just want something no one else has. It is different from iOS and Android, so perhaps a certain number of people will want it just because of that fact.

Summary

Windows Phone 8 is a great mobile OS with good hardware, but a lot of hurdles yet to clear. In spite of everything negative listed above, it is well thought out, very well implemented, and something to keep tracking. If it gains enough steam, and everything meshes perfectly, it could possibly be a top mobile OS. But the real problem is it just may be too late--5 years too late. We will see if Windows Phone 8 will be enough to win Microsoft more than just an honorable mention.

Lately Microsoft has been making serious strides in the iOS development space. One such example was their recent release of the official Xbox LIVE companion app, My Xbox LIVE. At first the tool was mainly for viewing Xbox LIVE messages, gamerscore and avatars, but now things finally seem to be taking a turn for the more interactive.

As part of their sixth update to the application, functionality has now been patched in to actually remote control and interact with the console from the iPad. Granted the remote control abilities are limited to multimedia playback and they do not apply to the iPhone version, but at least it is a baby step towards Microsoft eventual SmartGlass feature set. It remains to be seen if the My Xbox LIVE software will actually be the vehicle for launching the initiative down the road but as far as we are concerned, any kind of convergence across the platforms is a move in the right direction.

Either way, if you own an Xbox and an iPad there is really no reason not to check the app out anyway, considering it is free. Give it a look. Who knows? You might be surprised at what you find.

At Microsoft’s E3 press conference, they revealed an interesting new feature that will integrate smartphones and tablets to the Xbox 360. Called SmartGlass, this is designed to operate a second screen during games, movies, and TV shows. This means that hypothetically, a game could display a map on the tablet screen, or even integrate interactive game elements like maps and play-calling in sports games.

TV shows and movies will be able to provide supplemental information and features with SmartGlass as well. Game of Thrones was mentioned specifically as an application of SmartGlass. In fact, that may be the killer app for SmartGlass, considering that there’s no way to understand what’s going on in the show without consulting the internet! SmartGlass will also be able to control the upcoming Internet Explorer for Xbox.

Despite Microsoft trying to make their own imprint on the tablet market with Windows 8, SmartGlass is going to be platform-agnostic, with apps for iOS and Android, with support for both phones and tablets. This shows that Microsoft is a very segmented company, with their Xbox division potentially removing a valuable reason to get a Windows 8 device, as well as the fact that these non-Microsoft operating systems are so prominent that Microsoft has to play ball with them. No release date for SmartGlass is available yet, but it will likely be part of the fall Dashboard updates that Microsoft releases.

Remember the Courier? That dual-screened, book-like tablet that Microsoft might have released. We’ll now there’s an iOS app that attempts to give users the experience they might have had on the Courier. Tapose, a successful Kickstarter project by developers Benjamin Monnig and Ricky Drake, has just been released.

Tapose’s main feature is the “slide bar” in the middle of the screen. It functions as a control panel for both sides of the screen. It can also be moved to change the sizes of each screen. Users can control two separate functions on each side of the bar (web browsing, note taking, etc). Tapose even offers web storage so that work done through the app doesn’t fill up the iPad’s hard drive.

The Kickstarter project raised over $26,000 and was partially funded by the leader of the Courier project at Microsoft, J Allard. Taposé is available in the App Store for $2.99. Check out the video of Tapose in action below.

Microsoft may have a competing smartphone OS, but that isn't stopping them from releasing apps for their competition. Their latest iOS app is Photosynth, an app that allows you to take 360 degree, three-dimensional panoramic photos with your iOS device. You launch the app, tap to take a starting picture, then move around to take pictures to add to the panorama, trying to line up the center dot with the dashed lines to add new photos to the panorama, adding new photos until you feel that it's complete. When you're finished, the app saves a 2D version of it to your Camera Roll. This process is invisible and automatic, though - you won't even know that it's saved there unless you check, as even App Store reviews complain that there's no way to save photos to your Camera Roll from the app, despite the automatic saving. You can also share to Bing Maps, Facebook, and Photosynth.net.

The app has a few drawbacks. Your photos need to be taken in consistent lighting conditions, or else the stitching process will make your photos look weird, as different photos might have different exposures. There is an exposure lock in the settings you might want to turn on to help this out. The app occasionally loses your position as you move around, which can create spots where a photo may be randomly mismatched with the rest of the panorama. Finally, it seems difficult to create a photo with straight edges, if not impossible, so you photos will largely be jagged-edge affairs. However, this app still lets you create some unique-looking panoramas that even a standard panoramic photo app can't match.

The irony of this situation is that Photosynth is actually not available on Microsoft's own Windows Phone 7 yet. The reason apparently has to do with the level of camera access that iOS provides to apps - apparently they can access the camera API in ways that Windows Phone 7 does not yet allow, so the app won't be on there for the near future. Photosynth is available for free, with support for 3rd generation and up iOS devices, including the iPad 2's camera, although the app does not run natively in iPad mode yet.